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How important are the racial differences in COVID-19 data?

Claims that the racial disparities to be seen in US pandemic data evidence of are evidence of systemic racism rests on a false presumption, writes Coleman Hughes on Quillette.

There is now a racial justice angle on the coronavirus pandemic, Coleman Hughes writes in a Quillette report. Ibram X Kendi, director of antiracist research at American University, led the charge in The Atlantic a week ago, calling for data on COVID-19 deaths broken down by race. Nikole Hannah-Jones followed up with a Twitter thread documenting the disparate impact the virus has had on black Americans. Dr Anthony Fauci, the US' top immunologist, hit a similar theme in a recent press conference. To sum up the argument: Black people make up roughly 14% of the US population, but far more than 14% of Americans killed thus far by COVID-19.

Hughes writes that according to one view, this racial disparity amounts to evidence of systemic racism. But the argument rests on the false presumption that, in the absence of racism, we would see equal health outcomes by race. The data suggest otherwise. In fact, blacks are more likely than whites to die of many diseases – not just this one. In other cases, the reverse is true. According to US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mortality data, whites are more likely than blacks to die of chronic lower respiratory disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, liver disease, and eight different types of cancer. The same thinking that attributes the racial disparity in COVID-19 deaths to systemic racism against blacks could be applied equally to argue the existence of systemic racism against whites.

Hughes writes that in some cases, there are obvious biological reasons for racial disparities in disease. Melanin content alone might explain the racial disparity in skin cancer, for example. But in other cases, the source of the disparity is mysterious. Why are whites more likely to die of Alzheimer’s? We don’t know. What’s important is that disparities between groups are not abnormal and are not, by themselves, a sign of any deeper societal malady.

Hughes writes that a softer version of the above-described argument would concede that racial disparities in COVID-19 don’t prove anything by themselves – but would point to the various risk factors that nevertheless make black Americans more susceptible to COVID-19. Blacks are more likely to work in the service sector, for instance, which means they have more opportunities to contract the virus. Moreover, blacks are more likely to suffer from diabetes, asthma, obesity, and hypertension, all of which make the virus more deadly. Moreover, black Americans are less likely to have access to high-quality health care, and are more likely to live in areas that are served by over-burdened hospitals and emergency-response services.

But, Hughes writes, if we are going to discuss underlying risk factors, we should discuss them directly rather than immediately using race as a proxy. Focusing on age makes sense, because it has been obvious since early on that the elderly face a far higher COVID-19 case fatality rate. Focusing on people with pre-existing medical risk factors makes sense for the same reason. But absent some hitherto undiscovered genetic factor, focusing on race makes about as much sense as focusing on, say, religion. If anyone bothers to look, there will probably be disparities between Catholics and Protestants. Yet no one will feel the need to mention these at a press conference, and our public health efforts will not suffer as a result.

The fact is that the US culture is obsessed with race, writes Hughes. Part of this stems from a sincere desire to help the less fortunate, who are disproportionately black. But much of it stems from a deeply felt shame over the sins of history – slavery, Jim Crow, and all that followed. As a result, anything vaguely resembling a concern for black suffering is applauded – and no further questions are asked.

The House Democrats’ proposed coronavirus relief bill included a provision requiring that federal government agencies use as many minority-owned banks as possible, and another provision requiring corporations to maintain staff and budgets dedicated to “diversity and inclusion” for at least five years as a condition of receiving emergency funds. It is hard to see how either policy helps the less fortunate, much less why such non-urgent provisions are appropriate to include in a disaster relief bill.

Hughes writes that here are many lessons to take away from this pandemic, but the importance of race is not one of them. Italy, Spain, and France – all heavily white countries – have been among those hardest hit by the pandemic. British Prime Minister He argues that Boris Johnson, who possesses as much race and class privilege as anyone on Earth, has been hospitalised as a result of the virus.

Hughes writes that if there is a lesson to take away from COVID-19, it’s not that your racial identity matters, it is that ultimately all of humanity shares a common fate.

[link url="https://quillette.com/2020/04/13/do-covid-19-racial-disparities-matter/"]Full Quillette report[/link]

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